Recent trends in manufacturing of electronic equipment place increased emphasis on reliability and robustness of components employed in such equipment. Power devices pose particular problems for several reasons. Of necessity, die for power devices are formed from brittle materials and have large areas. Power devices produce heat during normal operation, providing need for heatsinking and also exacerbating stresses arising from differences in thermal expansion coefficients between materials employed in such devices. Typically, die are thinned in order to improve heat transfer from active device regions to a heatsink and to reduce power dissipation by reducing electrical resistance. Power devices are also generally placed into close proximity with and physically coupled to an external heatsink to improve heat transfer thereto. This places further stresses on the package and die contained therein. Additional problems arise in forming and/or sealing packages containing such die without damaging the die.
What are needed are methods and apparatus for providing physical protection and heatsinking for power microelectronic devices which also provide improved device reliability and robustness.